Gallup Shows How Much Americans Really Care About The "Situation With Russia"

As David Sirota noted, "Gallup recently did a poll of what Americans say is the most important problem facing the country. One finding: the percentage of Americans saying “Situation with Russia” is the most important problem is literally too small to represent with a number. "

Yup, as person above said, the OP is highly misleading here. This is not about what is "a" priority, but about which problem is "the most important problem". If I am asked what is the most important problem and I answered "X", that does not mean that "Y" is NOT a problem - just that in my opinion it is not "the most important problem".

sundin13 said:That title is a lie. The question wasn't "Is Russia a Priority", the question is "Is Russia the Most Important Problem facing this Country".

There is a huge difference between the two, which shouldn't need to be explained.

Helloplite said:Yup, as person above said, the OP is highly misleading here. This is not about what is "a" priority, but about which problem is "the most important problem". If I am asked what is the most important problem and I answered "X", that does not mean that "Y" is NOT a problem - just that in my opinion it is not "the most important problem".

Misleading tactics won't help.

Priority literally means to consider before (prior) anything else, so the most important thing.

Priority = "something that is very important and must be dealt with before [prior] other things"

sundin13 said:That title is a lie. The question wasn't "Is Russia a Priority", the question is "Is Russia the Most Important Problem facing this Country".

There is a huge difference between the two, which shouldn't need to be explained.

Helloplite said:Yup, as person above said, the OP is highly misleading here. This is not about what is "a" priority, but about which problem is "the most important problem". If I am asked what is the most important problem and I answered "X", that does not mean that "Y" is NOT a problem - just that in my opinion it is not "the most important problem".

Misleading tactics won't help.

Priority literally means to consider before (prior) anything else, so the most important thing.

Priority = "something that is very important and must be dealt with before [prior] other things"

Well, that would only be true if you could have only one priority, which isn't the case, hence why the phrase "top priority" is valid English and not simply redundant and common idioms such as "get your priorities straight" exist. Or even more simply, the fact that you can make the word plural... Pretty much everything on that list would be considered a priority, simply not the top priority.

You can look to definitions such as "a preferential rating" or "Precedence,especiallyestablished by order of importance or urgency" to show how the word "priority" can be used alongside multiple items or a list of items.

So yes, that title is still a lie (or I guess in your case just very bad English).

Well, that would only be true if you could have only one priority, which isn't the case, hence why the phrase "top priority" is valid English and not simply redundant and common idioms such as "get your priorities straight" exist. Or even more simply, the fact that you can make the word plural... Pretty much everything on that list would be considered a priority, simply not the top priority.

You can look to definitions such as "a preferential rating" or "Precedence,especiallyestablished by order of importance or urgency" to show how the word "priority" can be used alongside multiple items or a list of items.

So yes, that title is still a lie (or I guess in your case just very bad English).

'Top priority' is a tautology as 'top' and 'prior' mean the same thing in two different languages (before, first, foremost). The implication of second or lower priorities is faulty language, even if some people (mis)use it in casual conversation.